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Custom Search Engine on Safari and Spotlight (macOS)

Custom Search Engine on Safari and Spotlight (macOS)

by knhash·Mar 6, 2026·5 points·1 comment
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AI Analysis

●●SolidBig BrainNiche Gem

DNS hijacking + self-signed cert trick to intercept Safari search, but setup is fragile and requires sudo.

Strengths
  • •Clever wire-protocol approach: intercepts at OS level without modifying Safari itself, works across both Safari and Spotlight.
  • •Honest about risk: author explicitly warns users to audit code before running sudo commands, refuses to hand-hold.
  • •Interactive form auto-generates personalized shell commands, reducing copy-paste errors.
Weaknesses
  • •Setup requires five separate manual steps with sudo access; one misconfiguration breaks system DNS or trust store.
  • •No uninstall guide; users must manually reverse each step or risk leaving artifacts in /etc/hosts and LaunchDaemons.
Target Audience

macOS users wanting privacy-focused search; technically confident developers

Similar To

SearXNG · StartPage · DuckDuckGo

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